Dominican man with false papers imprisoned for voting in Broward elections
Carlos Jose Abreu, a native of the Dominican Republic, assumed the identity of a Puerto Rican man with U.S. citizenship for nearly two decades while committing an array of crimes in the United States, including voting twice in Broward County.
Abreu obtained government documents, filed taxes, was married, helped his spouse gain U.S. citizenship, purchased firearms, received stimulus checks, acquired licenses, got arrested, and opened credit cards and other lines of credit, a prosecutor said in a court filing before his sentencing.
He also purchased firearms, rented property, voted in federal elections and even used the stolen identity of the Puerto Rico-born man on his minor children’s birth certificates.
“This is not a typical false documents case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brianna Coakley argued in court papers. “Nor is this a typical aggravated identity theft case.”
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz sentenced Abreu, 46, to five years and five months in prison after he pleaded guilty to federal charges in March that he had falsely registered as a voter under the stolen name of the Puerto Rican man in the 2016 and 2022 federal elections in Broward.
But it’s not clear from Fort Lauderdale federal court records whether he registered as a Democrat, Republican or with no party affiliation.
Abreu, who has been held at the Broward Sheriff’s Office jail since his arrest in 2024, faced a mandatory minimum sentence of two years for stealing the identity of the Puerto Rican man, along with additional time for passport and voting violations, as well as possessing a gun as an undocumented immigrant. He had been living in Sunrise before his arrest last August.
According to a factual statement filed with his guilty plea, Abreu is a citizen of the Dominican Republic who entered the United States and assumed the identity of the Puerto Rican, identified as “C.R.V.,” in 2007. From that point until last year, Abreu used that stolen name in his dealings with local, state and federal agencies. The Puerto Rican man was unaware of the identity theft.
Abreu registered to vote under C.R.V.’s name in Broward County and cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election, the statement said. He renewed his registration in 2020 to vote in the 2022 midterm election, according to the statement signed by him, his defense lawyer Wesley Wallace and Coakley, the prosecutor.
Abreu was also charged with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm when he was arrested by U.S. Marshals Service deputies at his residence in Sunrise on Aug. 21, 2024. He admitted to obtaining a Florida concealed carry permit under C.R.V.’s name and purchasing four firearms.
In early January, Abreu also pleaded guilty in Fort Lauderdale federal court to other charges in connection with using C.R.V.’s identity: making false statements on three applications to obtain a U.S. passport for himself and his two daughters on Oct. 2, 2021. The State Department Diplomatic Security Service flagged his passport application for investigation after the agency discovered he had used that same name for a passport application in 2008, records show.
Abreu also obtained Florida and Pennsylvania driver’s licenses in C.R.V.’s name, investigators said. He used the Florida driver’s license in the other person’s name with his photo for the passport applications.
Abreu admitted that he “knew that the personal identifying information did not belong to him,” according to another factual statement filed with his initial guilty plea.
“Those statements on the applications were false,” the document said. “The defendant knew those statements were false.”
Abreu moved from New Jersey to South Florida in 2015, according to a detention order filed in Fort Lauderdale federal court. Married with two children, he had been working as a quality assurance technician at Blue Stream Fiber in Coral Springs.
Abreu was also wanted on an active warrant out of New Jersey from 2008, when he failed to appear in court on charges of kidnapping, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, according to authorities.
